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.The focal point of thisdance, which wove back and forth, in a fanlike motion, before it, was a high,white-barked tree.Cancega repeated, over and over, carrying the medicinewand, and dancing, "It is the tree." The other two fellows, who had joinedhim, with the rattles, would add a refrain, "It is tall and straight." Thisrefrain, too, was sometimes echoed by those about us.Winyela, her hands bound behind her, and her neck in the tethers, in herfinery, watched.I could see the marks of varios weapons in the bark of the tree where, perhapstwo or three days ago, the young men had charged to it, to be the first toPage 20ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlreach it, in their race for coups."It is the tree!" suddenly cried Cancega, rushing to the tree and striking itwith the medicine wand."It is tall and straight!" shouted the two seconds, in the dance, and most ofthe others, as well, including my friend, Cuwignaka.Two men rushed to Winyela and untied her hands.She was pushed forward, thetethers still on her neck, but now rather behind her.A long-handled, single-balded ax was pressed into her hands.It was a tradeax.Its back was blunted, for the driving of pegs, stakes and wedges.It washeavy for her.page 35~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~"You should not be here," said a man to Cuwignaka."This is no place for freewomen.""I am a man," said Cuwignaka.The man shrugged.I looked about.To be sure, there were no women present, with the exception ofthe lovely Winyela.She began, under the direction of Cancega, and others, to strike at the lowerportions of the tree.I wondered why there were no free women present.Could it be that somethingwas to occur which was regarded as not being suitable, perhaps, for thesensibilities of free women?Winyela continued to chop at the tree.It was some twenty-five to thirty feet in height, but it was not, really, alarge tree.Its trunk was slim and polelike, and surely only some eight to teninches in width.A man, working with such a tool, would have felled it in amatter of moments.Winyela, of course, was neither a man nor a woodsman.Shewas only a lovely slave.Her hands were widely spaced on the ax handle, andher blows were short.Cancega and the others, interestingly, in spite of thefact that she was a slave, were patient with her.To be sure, she had enoughsense not to beg to rest.The necklaces and ornaments she wore rustled andshimmered, making tiny sounds, as she labored.I supposed it was the firsttime in her life she had had such an implement in her hands.They are seldomused by debutantes from Pennsylvania nor, of course, by Gorean slave girls.I saw Canka ride up, on his kaiila.He had come, apparently, from the camp.She looked at him, the tethers on her neck.He indicated that she shouldcontinue to work.In a moment there was a cracking noise, and then, after a few more blows, asplintering, rending sound as the tree tipped, and then, its branches strikingthe earth, fell.Five last blows were struck, cutting the last fibers andwood, and the trunk, freed, laid level, a yard above the ground, held in placeby branches and foliage.The men grunted with approval.The ax was removed from Winyela's hands and shewas dragged back and knelt, her knees closely together, on the ground.The twomen who held her tethers now stood beside her, the slack in the tethers,looped, now taken up, the rawhide loops in their fists."What occurs now?" I asked Cuwignaka."Watch," said he to me.Several of the men, now, under the direction of Cancega, page 36~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~began to remove the branches and bark from the felled tree.Two forks wereleft, one about eighteen feet high and the other about twenty-three feet high.This was to allow for the pole later being set in the earth, within theenclouser of the dance, set among its supporting stakes, to a depth of someseven or eight feet.These forks would then be, respectively, about ten andfifteen feet high.The slim trunk of the tree, with its forks, stripped of its bark, was nowPage 21ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmllong, smooth and white.It was set in two stout tripods of branches, about a yard above the ground.Paint was brought forth, in a small clay vessel.The girl, too, was againbrought forward.It was she, herself, with the paint, the slave, who must proclaim that thepoke was Kaiila [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]